Today's Scripture
TODAY’S READING SCHEDULE: 1 Chronicles 25-27; Luke 4:1-30
Spirit of the Lord – Luke 4:14-29
14 Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. 15 He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.
16 He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”[f]
20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21 He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
22 All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked.
23 Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ And you will tell me, ‘Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’”
24 “Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown. 25 I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. 26 Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. 27 And there were many in Israel with leprosy[g] in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.”
28 All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. 29 They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. 30 But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.
What does this passage mean to me/us?
Imagine what might have been going through Jesus’ mind when he saw the response of the people of his home town.
He came from an amazing experience of winning over a spiritual battle with Satan and ‘returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit.’ He was about to make changes in the life of the people. He was sharing the Good News of God’s Kingdom to come, which was the fulfillment of God’s promise and the answer to the people’s prayers. But they reject him because they didn’t want to hear the message of the changed Jesus.
In the same way, what would Jesus feel when we reject Jesus’ will for us in our lives. Because it is a message of change, and we merely don’t like it. Jesus is still full of love and grace, so we will not punish us for our rejection. However, our rejection is as same as the rejection of the people in Galilee, furthermore the ones who hung him on the cross.
Oh Lord, have mercy on us, sinners!
Prayer
Lord, may your will be done. Help us to be united to your will, and see how you make your ways!
In Christ Name we pray, AMEN.
Click to subscribe to our Daily Devotion.
You will receive a devotion in your inbox every morning.